Harrison Cruikshank (3L)
The first day of school is always exciting, and the first of 3L especially so. Those promises made in 1L by virtuous upper years are finally going to be honoured. Those promises that 3L is an entirely different experience compared to the rest of law school, a great experience full of revelry and good-time feelings. Well, let me tell you first hand, 3L is REALLY different. The moment you begin, it’s almost like you’re at another school entirely.
For starters, you barely recognize any of your classmates. Everyone looks way different than I remember. It seems like everyone’s taken up smoking and started riding those weird little push scooter things you wanted really badly when you were 8 years old. Also, I thought I knew some people in the year below me, but I guess not. I only recognize like three people in any of my classes—maybe four. I’m also not seeing DSBert around the school as often as I did in 1L… did he graduate? Still, I’m not sure if the classes themselves are much easier like people always said they would be. The legalese is so dense it almost seems like my professors are speaking another language entirely. Crazy gibberish.
Next, the change in your perspective as a 3L is immediate. Maybe it’s just the sweet knowledge that law school is almost finished, but food tastes so much better in 3L. Pastries, cheeses, charcuterie…not to mention the wine! It’s divine. The drawback is that with this increased appreciation for taste comes other heightened senses. I never noticed how rank some people smell. I keep walking past people dressed as if it’s their day to moot who smell like it’s the day before their moot factum is due. Foul. I also seem to have trouble keeping warm now. During the week everyone was talking about a heat wave, I was wearing a jacket! Two years of law school really do a number on your body.
I am really happy that the new law building is completed—and ahead of schedule (that is to say, not as late as they said it would be)! I thought for sure I’d never see the inside of it. The funny thing is, it looks like a really old building. I guess that’s an aesthetic choice, and I gotta say it does look nice. What fumes me though is that there are virtually no outlets anywhere, and the only ones I can find have the wrong kind of holes. What’s up with that?! To top it all off, the administration made a royal snafu, a snafu that makes forgot-to-get-a-permit-for-a-tree-even-though-they-are-all-lawyers-gate pale in comparison. They misspelled “University of Toronto Faculty of Law”! And it’s not just a small typo; the building reads “Université Jean Moulin”! How do you make that mistake? It looks like the building…of…a…different…school. Hm.
Oh no. Dear readers, a law student on a year-long bender (aka 2L) can do some crazy things—like fill out an exchange application, apply for a visa, rent an apartment, get on a plane, and forget he did all those things. That, or I should really see a doctor about my explosive amnesia. What was I saying? Oh yes. I guess I’m on exchange. In retrospect, I probably should have figured that out less than a month into my stay in Lyon, France. Well, better make the most of it. Maybe I’ll even improve my French! Finally I’ll be able to communicate in more than just English and my native tongue, Simpsons quotations. Well readers, whatever I do, I vow to bring to you stories from ‘round the horn the likes of which ye have never seen.
This is Harrison Cruikshank, Ultra Vires Foreign Correspondent, signing off.
